Beekeeper
The Beekeeper '''is a returning tower that debuted in the iOS version of BTD4 as an unlockable tower. It returned in BTD5 as a Special Agent, and was removed from BTD6 with the other Special Agents. It now returns as a full tower in BTD7: The Bloon War with new upgrades and a complete overhaul. In late game, the Beekeeper is one of the strongest towers, with abilities and effects that heavily reduces the effectivess of MOAB-class bloons. Overview In BTD7, Beekeeper excels at popping groups of tightly clustered bloons and is an excellent choice for popping extremely fast bloons such as Pinks, Yellows, Purples, and their alternative counterparts. Launched bees leave a stinger on a bloon, popping a layer for every second it is embedded into the bloon. Stingers usually last 4 seconds before disappearing, but can be upgraded to last longer by the middle path upgrades. While the Beekeeper may be a good counter for grouped bloons, the Spike-o-Pult is a much better choice to consider as it has better pierce and popping power compared to the Beekeeper and it has a lower cost. The Beekeeper also struggles at clearing tightly grouped Ceramic bloons and does even worse versus multiple MOABs without the 3rd Tier upgrades. '''Advantages and Disadvantages * Pros + Does very well against groups of bloons. + Homing bees chase down and accurately pop fast bloons. + Fast launch rate. + Fair range. + Tier 3+ upgrades on all paths deal well against Ceramics and MOABs. * Cons - Expensive base cost for its power. Its upgrades are also extremely expensive, especially T4+. - Cannot target Camo bloons unless upgraded to T4+. - Struggles with Ceramic bloons and MOABs unupgraded. - Homing bees cannot pop lead, frozen, and many more bloons without the 2/0/0 upgrade. Upgrades ''-Note! Costs are still TBA-'' Path 1 * Stronger Bees Description: Stronger bees pop more bloons. Effect: Bees gain +1 pierce and +2 popping power. Appearance: The Beekeeper now has a orange bandana and the bees launched will be more orange-ish in color compared to the unupgraded yellow ones. * Bloontonium-tipped Stingers Description: Stingers splashed with bloontonium can now pop all types of bloons. Effect: Allows the bees to pop any kind of bloon. Appearance: The Beekeeper has the beehive strapped on his back with a green ribbon, and his bandana is now colored apple green. Bees launched will have their stingers glowing a green color. * Hornet Swarm Description: Releases a hornet swarm every few seconds that attack nearby bloons, dealing 10x more damage to Ceramics. Effect: Releases a swarm of hornets every 15 seconds that attack nearby bloons and deal 10x more damage to Ceramics. Hornet swarms can target Camo bloons and pop Lead and Frozen bloons. Hornet attacks last for 8 seconds before returning back to the Beekeeper. Appearance: The Beekeeper now has two hives; The hornet nest is strapped on his back held with a black ribbon, and he now holds the beehive again in this right arm. Hornets look exactly like the bees but are noticeably bigger, tinged warm orange, and have bigger stingers. * Mega Bees Description: Bigger the bees, bigger the pain. Effect: Impossibly big bees can instantly pop a rainbow bloon and deal 20x more damage to Ceramics and MOAB-class bloons. Appearance: The Beekeeper's fur is now colored a slightly lighter brown, and now has a scar on his left cheek. The hornet nest on his back remains untouched, but the beehive is now increased in proportion, and is now the size of a small termite mound, though it is till held by the Beekeeper. Bees are incredibly larger like a MOAB Mine but thrice the size and is still the same color. * Hive Rage Description: Hornet swarm lasts twice as long and is twice as powerful. Mega bees now deal increased damage versus MOAB-class bloons. Effect: Hornet attacks now lasts a whopping 16 seconds, and can pop a Ceramic bloon in one sting. Mega bees now deal 30x increased damage versus MOABs and can now detect and attack Camo bloons. Hornet swarms are also spawned faster, reduced to only 10 seconds of duration. Appearance: The Beekeeper and the hives look like the same, but the ribbon that holds the hornet nest is now colored dark red. The hornets are bigger than normal, and now have vertical red stripes across its midsection. The mega bees are now fully red, with horizontal black stripes across their body. * Hybrid Roost Description: Hybridized offspring of hornets and bees wreak disastrous bloon havoc with their powerful stings. Effect: The hornet-bee hybrids, or hornbees for short, deals extremely high damage versus ALL types of bloons, and can strip off Fortified, Regen, and Camo statuses off bloons permanently. The Beekeeper will now have three attacks: launching hornbees, the hornbee, and occasionally spawning mega hornbees can stun a MOAB for 1.5 seconds. Launches hornbees every 2 seconds, swarms after 8 seconds, and their huge counterparts after 12 seconds. Appearance: The Beekeeper's fur will now be a light brown-ish color similar to those of the Syrian brown bear, and two scars are now present on his cheeks, forming a shape of X. The hybrids looks like a cross between a bee and a hornet, albeit much, much larger and has an orange color with vertical black lines across its midsection and red markings near its stinger. The Beekeeper now holds a large mound that has both hornet nest and beehive characteristics, with a striped yellow ribbon.__FORCETOC__